Hazardous, poisonous, toxic or otherwise dangerous materials are typically stored within “child-resistant packaging” so as to minimize the potential for accidental exposure to inquisitive children. For instance, one example of such materials are pharmaceutical drugs or other therapeutic agents. As is known in the art, such materials are generally stored within rigid plastic containers having specially configured caps. To open the container, some advanced degree of manual dexterity is required to properly overcome the cap's safety features to gain access to the pharmaceutical agents therein. Ideally, the degree of manual dexterity needed to open the container is sufficiently high enough to prevent children from defeating the safety mechanism while also being not so complex that an elderly individual cannot readily open the container to retrieve his or her medications. While there are numerous container/cap systems in use with rigid containers, there is lack of child-resistant closure mechanisms for non-rigid containers, such as pliable plastic or fabric bags.
One attempt to produce a child-resistant reclosable bag is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,115 to Diederich et al. (“the '115 patent”). As disclosed in the '115 patent, a flexible bag is equipped with a zipper operatively coupled to the opening of the bag made from sheets of resinous material. The zipper has a pull tab for actuating the zipper to open and close the bag opening. The bag has a releasable lock support with locking arms which are adapted to receive the pull tab when the bag is closed. The lock support prevents actuation of the zipper unless on individual manually pivots the locking arms so as to release the pull tab from the lock support. While manually pivoting the locking arms, the individual can then slide the pull tab and thereby actuate the zipper to open the bag.
While the '115 patent provides a child-resistant locking device for a flexible bag, this device has a number of drawbacks. One drawback of the device disclosed within the '115 patent is the requirement that the individual attempting to open the closure have sufficient manual dexterity in both hands. That is, both hands must operate simultaneously to open the bag—one hand has to pivot the locking arms with the other hand slides the zipper. This two-handed operation may be problematic, and potentially ultimately defeating, for individuals who may lack adequate strength and/or dexterity in one hand, such as an elderly individual suffering from arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome or those suffering from a disability which limits use of the hands.
Thus, what is needed is a child-resistant locking mechanism which may be easily opened by an adult using only one hand while also resisting the efforts of inquisitive children.